Well, before you know it, Sunday will be here. Mother’s Day 2019 will be upon us and we will be honoring Mother’s for all they are and how much they mean to us.
Mother’s Day always chalks up incredible memories for me of my mother when I was growing up. She is a very strong woman. She always has been relentless. A very hard worker when I was a kid. In her later years, I have watched her work, taking care of my father who is now confined to a wheelchair.
I did not realize it when I was growing up, but when I was older I realized I grew up in the cleanest house on the planet. My mother worked outside the home eight hours a day, however there was always a home-cooked meal prepared, no exceptions! Every Saturday, she cleaned the house. We all had our chores but she was a machine.
She cleaned from top to bottom. Washed all the sheets on every bed. I used to love Saturday night and the smell of sheets that dried on the clothesline all afternoon. I understood when I got older, when I had a wife and a family of my own, that our family structure would be different than that.
We had to choose what was most important because you pay a price either way. I may have grown up in the cleanest house in the universe, but my parents were never at any of my games and events. I am not complaining, I am just saying you have choices to make and whatever you choose is the right choice as long as you choose to be there!
Here is the thing… Mom’s, you are your own worst critics. So I want to let you off the hook today.
There is no right or wrong way for any of us to parent as long as we are there. Loving, nurturing, providing, guiding, supporting, etc.
Is there a right way or a wrong way to do any of these things? No. You find your balance by being you and what works for you. Monitor how your kids respond and adjust accordingly. Whatever you do and in everything you do, be loving and be relentless.
The definition of relentless is to be oppressively constant; incessant. Persistent, continuing, nonstop, steady. I think you get the picture.
I can’t help but think of this verse, Ephesians 6:13; Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything, to stand firm.
I picture a relentless overcomer, a warrior who won’t give up and won’t give in! My wife is one of these relentless Mothers’, she works all day and then works all night taking care of her family. She seldom thinks of herself. She rarely takes a break, she is always serving. She is an incredible wife and mother. A few years ago the girls and I decided that Heidi was too special to just celebrate a Mother’s Day, so we make the month of may Mother’s Month. We pamper her extra specially in the month of May. Her favorite restaurants, we take her to get her nails done, Vera Bradley purses, shoes etc. We feel a relentless mother needs to be relentlessly pampered.
I recently read a true story concerning how the cross became the beloved symbol of our faith in Christ. It happened by the influence of another relentless mom, her name was Helen and she was the mother of emperor Constantine during the fourth century.
Helen went on a quest to find the actual cross that Jesus had died upon. She searched everywhere until she found what was believed to be the actual cross our Lord was crucified on. The old wooden artifact was beginning to splinter and crack. She did not know what to do with it. She was looking for a way she could spread the gospel with the original cross she found.
Helen began taking slivers of wood off of the cross and sent the little wooden fragments to believers and churches around the world. People from all over the globe began using the cross as a symbol to contemplate the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection. Seeing part of the actual cross caused people to want to pray and worship. Gradually the cross began to represent something sacred, sacrificial and sacramental.
Before Helen’s relentless quest and distribution, the cross marked a place of agony. But as its presence spread thanks to Helen, the cross became an emblem of Christ’s crushing and the new life that he produced when Christ emerged from the tomb alive forevermore. The cross went from an artifact that represented death to an icon that annihilated the burden of sin. Helen’s quest changed the world and our faith as we know it. I would like to wish all Mom’s a wonderful and happy mother’s day. You are extraordinary!
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Dave Truncone is the pastor of First Assembly of God Church in Van Buren. He and his wife, Heidi, have been married 26 years. They have two daughters, Hannah, 20, and Abigail, 16. They have lived in Van Buren for eight years.